


Other Friends

by EmmyJay



Series: Ivory Ascending [4]
Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 06:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21423496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmyJay/pseuds/EmmyJay
Summary: Three days after her night in the Emperor's talons, Seladon finds an unexpected visitor in her chamber.
Relationships: Seladon & skekSil (Dark Crystal)
Series: Ivory Ascending [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1528451
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Other Friends

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? Could there be some semblance of plot happening? Surely not!

Following her meeting with the Emperor, Seladon noticed a change in her meals. 

While the food she'd been brought before had hardly been starvation rations, it had often been on the meager side, consisting largely of a heel of bread accompanied by porridge in the morning, and a simple broth in the evening, without much in the way of meats or fish as she'd been accustomed to in Ha'rar. The evening after the Chamberlain's so-called comfort, however, the Podlings brought her a stew richer than she had seen in an unum: broth thick and glistening with fat, and swimming with chunks of Nebrie. The smell of it alone made her mouth water, and she even felt guilty that she was unable to stomach more than a few bites, the taste of Essence still lingering too strongly on her tongue for anything more.

The Chamberlain' daily visits continued as usual, if not with a noted increase in enthusiasm. When he wasn't massaging balms into her quickly-healing scratches, he was fussing over imaginary blemishes on her skin, or rubbing scented oils into her hair. His talons caught every so often on a snarl, sending pain shooting through Seladon's scalp as he tugged it free; if it was a particularly thick one she would flinch, or even cry out, and he would cluck his tongue and stroke her cheek, looking down at her with a fondness that was not sincere. He had also taken to nipping along her hairline with his beak, a behaviour which Seladon had found baffling until she recalled watching a pair of birds preening each other, in the tree outside her bedroom window in Ha'rar.

_'He wants to make sure I look my best when the Emperor calls on me again,'_ she thought one evening after he had left, her hair smelling of fruits and flowers. _'He wants my appearance to please him.'_

Because somehow the Chamberlain had decided that Seladon was his route back into the Emperor's favour—a favour he had lost some time prior to her arrival at the castle, by means he had yet to disclose. And if she looked at it sideways, Seladon could see why he thought this: if she held the Emperor's attentions, then those close to her might capture them as well. In this way, the Chamberlain intended to stand on her shoulders to attain his own goals, whatever those might be. That she had no power nor held any sway seemed not to concern him—he would use her all the same.

Once upon a time, Seladon might have been offended to be seen as nothing more than a pawn. Now, the realisation rolled off her like rain against a glass window pane, unbothered by the storm raging outside.

She had been a pawn all her life, after all—it would be silly to suddenly take offense to it now.

\---

It was three days since her meeting that Seladon's routine underwent yet another change.

The Chamberlain had left for the night after hours of fussing, and she lay scented and groomed beneath her blankets, the lamp at her bedside flickering low. She was hanging on the edge of sleep, wondering what nightmares awaited her tonight, when her ears caught a scuttling sound coming from beneath her bed—one she knew from once before, when she lay under the Chamberlain's prodding in the aftermath of the Emperor's attentions.

It wasn't a Crawlie; she knew well by now what those sounded like. But it was something alive and many-limbed, lurking below her as she lay in her bed.

At once Seladon was awake and alert, all thoughts of sleep chased away by the continued noise below her. There was a moment of pause, as if of consideration; a few shorts steps, and then the scrape of limbs leaving the ground, an instant before a gentle weight landed on her legs. Seladon held her breath, heart hammering as the _thing_ crawled its way up her body, one tiny limb at a time. It paused now and again, and she could feel it watching her, observing. A feather-light touch to her cheek and she sat bolt upright in bed, flinging blanket and creature both away in a violent panic.

The thing shrieked in alarm as it was thrown, smacking into the opposite wall with a **thud** before it dropped unceremoniously to the floor (another **thud**). No sooner had it landed than it was on the move, scurrying across the room toward a darkened corner—where, Seladon realised, there was a crack in the stone just small enough for a Crawlie to squeeze through.

_'Or else some other pest.'_

The stone floor was like ice under her bare feet, but Seladon barely noticed in her dash toward the corner, chasing her target with the single-mindedness of a madwoman. It slipped through the crack just inches in front of her fingers, and she cursed the way Mayrin used to scold Tavra for, banging a fist on the floor in frustration.

"What are you?!" she hissed, pressing her face into the corner as close as she could manage—and wondered, half-hysterically, if she truly _was_ a madwoman now, speaking as she was to vermin that crept in the night.

In the darkness of the crack, Seladon could barely make out the creature's shape, its silhouette illuminated by the scant light coming through from the adjacent corridor. It had stopped roughly a foot inside, just out of reach, and stood shifting and turning around and around as though in hesitation. It took one step toward her; then another. It crept closer still while she held her breath, waiting. A single eye loomed out from the shadows and Seladon gasped, tumbling backwards in an alarmed heap.

The eye was followed shortly by three limbs, slipping fully into view. The limbs were a faint pinkish colour, leaf-like in appearance, while the eye was large and yellowed, its green iris fixed unblinkingly on the Gelfling in front of it. The two pieces seemed discordant with each other, as though they were not meant to be a single entity. Its whole body was no larger than Seladon's hand, and despite the lack of any further facial features, she had the distinct impression that it was judging her.

"You've been in my room before." It was not a question: Seladon already knew of at least one other instance, and it stood to reason that there had been others she'd simply missed. The creature's eye looked up, then down—a nod, she realised as though from far away, it was meant to be a nod. "Why are you here? Are you watching me for the Skeksis?"

Now the eye rolled, a gesture so bizarre that Seladon huffed out a laugh. It moved again, side-to-side this time. _'That's a no.'_ But if not for the Skeksis, then for who? Who else was there who cared what happened to her in this castle, who even knew of her presence here?

As if sensing her thoughts, the eye fixed its gaze forward, its pupil dilating in an intensity that Seladon felt pierce through her like a spear. And in it she felt something strange: a sense of familiarity, an encounter had some time before, in what now felt like another life.

"I know you," she breathed, not sure if she spoke to the creature or to herself. "How do I know you?

The eye held her gaze a moment longer, an answer she could not grasp reflected there. And then it slipped back into the crack, the scuttling of its limbs fading into the distance as though it was never there to begin with.

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh...this is kindof a proper story now.
> 
> I was hesitant to post this part, because it would truly cement that yes, this would be a continuing thing. Currently it has nine more parts planned, plus an epilogue-y bit. My primary concern was that I would lose steam halfway through, and it would end up incomplete like..well, every other multi-part fanfic I've ever written in my entire life.
> 
> (Yeah, I don't exactly have the best track record.)
> 
> But...I want to continue writing. And I figured, a few people seem to like it, so why not share?
> 
> Soooooooo let's keep fingers crossed, I guess? I have everything planned, and a fair amount of it written (albeit in disconnected chunks) so my odds are better than they've been in a while. Let's see if I can finish what I've started, for once.


End file.
